Marilee Rutherford raises the issue first. Has Twisted Hippo Brewing opened in a cursed location? No, Twisted Hippo’s new home is not cursed. (Well, probably not.) But it is the fourth brewery to operate there during the past three years. Breakroom Brewing, Finch Beer Co. and Ravinia Brewing each...

Revolution Brewing’s wintertime barrel-aged releases have become a delectable, boozy marathon. We’re at Mile 26. Rather than release its crop of barrel-aged beers on a single day, as do Cruz Blanca or Goose Island, Revolution has spread its releases across four months. In October, we met V.S.O.J....

Lil Buddy is the cutest beer you’ve ever seen. There are no two ways about it. To test the power of its cuteness, I brought Lil Buddy home. “Cute!” my wife said. “Why’s it so little?” my 3-year-old son asked. “That’s the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen!” said Aunt Carla, visiting from New Mexico....

For everyone who has ever joked that "beer calories don't count" — Bud Light is here to tell you otherwise. Next month, the brand will debut a new large-format label showing the beer's ingredients, calories and nutrition information. Alcohol brands are not required to disclose nutrition facts,...

Six breweries. Eighty-five miles. Six and a half hours. Who says doing good can’t be fun? The Jan. 19 afternoon slog is the brainchild of roommates Morgan Blofsky and Sarah Mellema, whose initial inspiration was a desire to sample as many examples of Chicago-made Resilience Butte County Proud IPA...

The beer: The Defender (Haymarket Brewery, Chicago and Bridgman, Mich.), an American-style stout. The back story: Hops are best known for their work in India pale ales, but they play an instrumental role across beer styles — including stouts. American-style stout — that is, hop-forward stout —...

Nonessential? Tell that to beer drinkers. Among the federal employees deemed “nonessential” and therefore on hiatus during the partial federal government shutdown, which is now in its third week, are those from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which approves most new beer labels. As...

Miller Lite is officially allowed to say it has “more taste” than Bud Light. But it shouldn’t. Yes, Miller Lite is the superior mass-marketed light beer. But it’s not because it has more taste. It’s because it has less taste. Let me explain. The question of “more taste” in light beer — already...

Few things have gone as planned during the short life of Une Annee Brewery. Founder Jerry Nelson’s vision of faithfully re-creating classic Belgian beer styles was quickly abandoned when the beers failed to resonate. Nelson launched a second brewing identity, Hubbard’s Cave, to make trendier beer...

Eleven years ago, just before the first HopCat craft beer bar and restaurant opened in Grand Rapids, Mich., employees sat at a table tasting various french fries, looking for the recipe to feature on the menu. They returned again and again to the same beer-battered fries tossed in a cracked pepper...

Bottoms up, Chicago. You’re the nation’s brewing capital. The metro region has surged past several longtime stalwarts to become home to more breweries than any other city in the nation — 167 — according to statistics published this week by the Brewers Association. Behind it are the metro areas...

With one hand, Revolution Brewing is giving beer drinkers just what they want Friday. With the other, it is pushing those drinkers down what may be an unfamiliar path. It’s all very much by design. At 4 p.m. at its taproom (3340 N. Kedzie Ave.), Revolution will release its take on one of craft...

The brewery that pledged never to make an India pale ale is making an India pale ale. But at least Dovetail Brewing is doing it for a good reason. So are 12 other Chicago area brewers, which are joining more than 1,000 colleagues nationally to make Resilience Butte County Proud IPA, a beer supporting...

The beer: Abrasive (Surly Brewing, Minneapolis), a double IPA The back story: In a world rife with double IPAs, Surly makes a bold claim with Abrasive — it was Minnesota’s very first double IPA. Released in 2008 as 16 Grit, Surly changed the name when the beer was canned for the first time, in...

Last year, Cerveceria Cruz Blanca released three barrel-aged beers, each more impressive than the next. They were subtle. They didn’t rely on gimmicks. They were simply three classic styles — imperial stout, barleywine and brown ale — aged in a combination of rum, brandy and bourbon barrels, blended...

Appropriating the name and likeness of a former NBA all-star for its new India pale ale was akin to BuckleDown Brewing attempting a full-court, buzzer-beating shot — it was an endeavor quite likely to fail. But, for the moment, BuckleDown’s shot has fallen through the hoop, as its fruity, robust...

The beer: Scurry (Off Color Brewing, Chicago), a dark ale made with honey, oats and molasses. The back story: When Off Color launched in 2013, it did so with two wildly out-of-the-box ales with German roots: Troublesome, a tart, briny gose, and Scurry, which was dark and easy-drinking. The beers...

Gary Gulley, who founded Alarmist Brewing in 2013 after nearly 20 years in web development, swore his brewery would never make a hazy IPA. “We thought it was lazy brewing,” Gulley said. Hayley Shine, of Eris Brewery and Cider House, admits she didn’t understand hazy IPA when she first made one...

Off Color Brewing, which makes some of Chicago’s boldest and most creative beer, is putting some of it in a uniquely small package: 250-milliliter bottles. Compared with the 12- and 16-ounce bottles and cans currently dotting beer store shelves, Off Color’s new look, which will be sold in four-packs,...

Mike Condon thought the email was a joke. Why would Planters, the nation’s seminal peanut brand, want to make a beer with Condon’s tiny west suburban brewery, Noon Whistle? Why would Planters want to make a beer at all? But sure enough, the email was real, and the unlikely result — Mr. IPA-Nut,...

Skies are gray. Temperatures are dropping. Baseball is finished. (At least in Chicago). Barrel-aged beer season is back! Revolution Brewing, which has firmly waded into the annual rite of releasing boozy beers aged in whiskey barrels, is back with a new batch of releases — a whopping 10 of them...

There's something nearly every brewery has in common. It's not making an India pale ale — no matter how dominant that style remains in the craft beer industry. It's coffee. Yes, morning's best friend is also evening’s best friend, finding its way into numerous beer styles from countless breweries...

The weekend smiled down on Chicago brewers with several awards at the Great American Beer Festival, the nation's most prestigious beer fest. Friday also saw accolades awarded to some of the people who write about those beer-makers, as the North American Guild of Beer Writers announced its 2018...

The beer: Dead Ringer, Ballast Point Brewing (San Diego) What it is: Dead Ringer is described as a “traditional marzen lager” on its label — in other words, one of those German-style Oktoberfest beers that emerge every year about this time. The label turns out to be a bit misleading; Dead Ringer...

Beer festivals. So many beer festivals. Too many beer festivals. Leave it to Half Acre Beer Co. to bring a fresh twist to a tired motif. Widely considered one of the city’s finest breweries, Half Acre announced a new festival Thursday called Far & Away, which will bring a hand-picked crop of about...

If you go by the journalistic cliche, three makes a trend — which means there’s no doubt that tequila barrel-aged beers are a trend. Over the past few years, a range of prominent breweries, from Deschutes Brewery to Avery Brewing Co. to Almanac Beer Co., have rolled out tequila barrel-aged beers....

Taprooms at Illinois breweries can offer a wider array of beer and cider as a result of legislation signed during the weekend by Gov. Bruce Rauner. Before House Bill 4897 became law Saturday, many breweries were restricted to pouring their own beer and beer made on site. The new law allows a brewery...

A decade ago, Anheuser-Busch made no beer that could legitimately be called “craft.” The nation’s largest beer company dabbled at the edges of the burgeoning craft beer movement, but its backbone remained the brands to which craft beer was largely a reaction — Bud and Bud Light, Natural Light and...

Chicago was home to fewer than 10 breweries a decade ago. Now it is a robust and diverse landscape, the nation’s fifth-largest collection of breweries, trailing only the stalwarts that got started long before us, and which a decade ago we could only envy: San Diego, Portland, Denver and Seattle....

Beermiscuous is taking its “coffee shop for beer” motif to the northern suburbs. The Lakeview bar doubling as a bottle shop, wrapped in an easygoing coffee shop vibe, plans to open this fall in downtown Highwood. Beermiscuous founder Paul Leamon said he hopes to open by October at 552 Sheridan...

It’s official. Craft beer is better. Or, at least craft beer is often more nuanced and interesting than Big Beer and made with better ingredients that extract superior results. There was no other conclusion after reassembling our panel of brewers from last summer’s macro beer tasting to taste 15...

Bourbon County is shaping up to be a particularly flavorful place this year. Goose Island’s iconic family of Bourbon County beers may include such ingredients as strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cinnamon, cacao nibs, chocolate (twice), lactose (twice) and vanilla (three times!), according to...

A true confession from someone expecting to be dismayed by the recently released Bud Light Orange: I am not dismayed by Bud Light Orange. Another confession: I actually sort of like it. I like Bud Light Orange in the way that I like orange soda, which, to be honest, isn’t all that much. But orange...

A clock sits above the bar at Quenchers Saloon, counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until Quenchers is no more. It’s like waiting for your own funeral. “I’ve dealt with it intellectually — this is what needs to be done,” Quenchers owner Earle Johnson said on a recent afternoon while...

Why order just one martini when you can try six? At Vol. 39, a stylish little cocktail bar tucked away on the second floor of the Loop’s Kimpton Gray Hotel, classic cocktails are the name of the game, with a menu dedicated to Old-Fashioneds, Negronis, Sazeracs and, of course, the martini. While...